The challenges were clear, but nothing could have prepared us for Brick by Brick’s roaring success
Thank you for ensuring that women and children have a voice, and somewhere to go, actor and Refuge ambassador David Morrissey writes
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Your support makes all the difference.When The Independent started discussing a new campaign with Refuge, the challenges were clear.
How could they join forces to address the fact that women and children were being turned away every two hours from overburdened refuges, necessitating impossible choices for survivors: either staying with their abuser or becoming homeless?
How could they mobilise the public into action, when, shockingly, more money is given to a donkey sanctuary than the four leading domestic abuse charities combined?
How could they materially change the reality that every five days on average in England and Wales, a woman is killed by her current or ex partner?
And so Brick by Brick was born. An urgent appeal which focused on combining the power of The Independent’s generous readers, supportive businesses, and well-known faces to say enough is enough – that we pledge to close the door on domestic abuse. A campaign that would focus upon a groundbreaking, tangible housing solution for women and children living in fear and violence, while simultaneously ensuring that the wide-ranging truths of domestic abuse are told.
It would concentrate on giving survivors a place to be safe while giving abuse nowhere to hide. It would get women and children out of immediate danger, whilst addressing the root causes of the epidemic of abuse which exists in every town, every village, every street. In short, it would be about saving lives.
Over three short months, we’ve come together to start the physical building of homes, listened to survivors’ stories, examined misconceptions about domestic abuse, and heard expert advice for women and children trapped in violence and fear. Just as the houses are being built brick by brick, so too has the nation’s knowledge and power to stop abuse in its tracks.
When we launched Brick by Brick in September, we were fired up but cautious: we knew that Independent readers and Refuge supporters have shown themselves to be hugely benevolent, but we were painfully aware that just 1.8 per cent of all charitable donations in the UK go towards women’s and girls’ causes.
Nothing could have prepared us for Brick by Brick’s success: smashing the initial target for one house, and reaching the finishing line for the second house in just three months. In early 2025, the first families will be moving in, and starting the process of healing. And that’s down to you.
So what now? Well, firstly, we want to say thank you. Thank you for coming together to build two homes in an incredibly short space of time. Thank you for giving your ears and hearts to Brick by Brick. Thank you for ensuring that women and children have a voice, and somewhere to go. Thank you for creating hope.
We believe that this is only the start. That as 2024 has been defined by seemingly endless accounts of violence against women and children, 2025 will be the year that we recognise the signs, face up to awful truths and come together to protect survivors.
Let’s keep rebuilding lives, brick by brick.